January 2015 archive

ADIEU, K B MENSAH! By CAMERON DUODU The Ghanaian Times 27 January 2015 THE cryptic message that I received on New Year’s Eve was hard to believe. It just asked: “Have you heard that our friend and BBC colleague, K B Mensah, has passed away? So sad!” “What? K B Mensah …

However, Excellencies, your own external intelligence agencies operating in Nigeria will no doubt have briefed you on how difficult it is to assist the current Nigerian Government in this noble task of seeking to help it return the country into the safe place for ALL its citizens that its government is duty-bound to ensure. The reasons for this difficulty are complex, but the principal one is that Nigeria sees herself as not lacking in either manpower or fire-power when it comes to defending itself. So the country may actually resent assistance from abroad.
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I suggest to you, Excellencies, that it is because of such complexities that the United States and Great Britain, for instance, find themselves unable to render as much military assistance to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram as they would normally, be only too willing to provide. The London missions of Your Excellencies may have reported to you that there was a mini-debate, arising from a Question in the British House of Commons in London, on the Nigerian situation on 12 January 2015. I trust Your Excellencies will find time to acquaint yourselves with some of the things the British MPs had to say. The point was made again and again in the debate that no-one could assist a person who did not seem to want assistance.
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In other words, if you must go, do candidly make clear to President Goodluck Jonathan that – as a Ghanaian proverb has it – “it is only when you try to climb a tree with adequate proficiency that those on the ground may feel inspired enough to push you up it!”

DAILY GUIDE Home / Columnist / Good News From Africa Good News From Africa January 17, 2015 The Tanzanian Government has announced measures aimed at stopping the murderous attacks often conducted against people with albinism in the country. Albinos can be found in most societies: in my part of Ghana, we knew them and called them by the name ofiri. In Tanzania, there are nearly 40,000 Albinos. Many Tanzanians …

The problem in France, as in many Western countries, is that the rulers do not ensure that their children are taught real world history in their schools, but a sanitised version that glosses over, if not totally ignores, the role played by their countries in the pauperisation of the peoples of so many countries in the world. Even worse, the people of these former colonising countries are never apprised of how disingenuous was the process whereby their countries transferred power from the traditional rulers of the colonies (who could at least be dealt with by the people themselves when they failed to perform) to an insensitive and unresponsive Western-educated elite that, once elected (through a vote that can be rigged) is empowered to swindle the state of its resources at will for four or five years at a time, and reduce the populace to penury, whilst indulging themselves in “conspicuous consumption”.

NEW YEAR HONOURS LIST by CAMERON DUODU Order of the Dead Tilapia (This newly created Hallowed Order is so eminent that no individual in Ghana could have earned it., It replaces the erstwhile “Order Of The Dead Vulture”. Be warned: only those familiar with “Olde English” [circa King James] will get its full import.) It …

QUOTE: “NANJING ­­ Six companies in east China’s Jiangsu Province were ordered to pay 160

million yuan (26 million U.S. dollars) for discharging waste chemical to rivers by a court….It is

the highest fine of its kind in China ever imposed.

“The companies, from Taizhou City, were ordered to pay the amount to an environmental protection fund within 30 days. They were found guilty of discharging 25,000 tons of waste acid
into two rivers, which caused serious pollution, according to Jiangsu Provincial Higher People’s Court. In August [2014] Taizhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced 14 people involved in the pollution to prison terms ranging from two to five years and ordered the companies to pay 26m US DOLLARS within nine months. The six companies appealed [but] Jiangsu Provincial
Higher People’s Court upheld the [original] ruling.

“NANJING ­­ Six companies in east China’s Jiangsu Province were ordered to pay 160

million yuan (26 million U.S. dollars) for discharging waste chemical to rivers by a court….It is

the highest fine of its kind in China ever imposed.

“The companies, from Taizhou City, were ordered to pay the amount to an environmental protection fund within 30 days. They were found guilty of discharging 25,000 tons of waste acid
into two rivers, which caused serious pollution, according to Jiangsu Provincial Higher People’s Court. In August [2014] Taizhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced 14 people involved in the pollution to prison terms ranging from two to five years and ordered the companies to pay 26m US DOLLARS within nine months. The six companies appealed [but] Jiangsu Provincial
Higher People’s Court upheld the [original] ruling

Maybe we have to sue the government? For it collects direct and indirect taxes to safeguard the public welfare, right? If it doesn’t use the taxes to ensure the public welfare – in this case, repair the damage done to the rivers by the galamsey operators so that posterity can have water to drink – it ought to be sued to do its duty, mustn’t it?